OBSCENE it is really. The peak of the holiday season, and come Thursday at Tolka the National League will already be drinking at Europe's last chance saloon. Shelbourne face SK Brann of Norway in the first leg of the European Cup Winners' Cup preliminary round. A win over two legs is essential, by whatever means, be it off a Shelbourne bum in the last minute of the second leg.

Sure, Sligo Rovers, Bohemians and St Patrick's Athletic performed more than credibly already this season/summer (dilute to taste). We in the know, well, know it. But if the National League is to really make an often lethargic and sometimes cynical Irish football public wake up and take notice, then Brann must be beaten.

This has always been accepted by the more enlightened within the game. By and large, even most Bohemians, St Patrick's and Rovers folk will be wishing their Dublin rivals - often the most envied and disliked - well.

The damage of our three representatives being eliminated from the three main European club competitions before the season is properly under way is incalculable in terms of the message it conveys to the great unwashed. Though the annual pre-season pilgrimage to domestic grounds by dutiful Irish supporters of English clubs brings more through the turnstiles, this is Ireland in Europe. This is way more important.

Now, of course, there's a more tangible importance to it as well. With each passing year the threat of the National League's representation in two of the three European competitions being reduced to two clubs grows. (Regaining the European Champions' League place should be the priority of all National League chiefs, though patently it isn't.)

The National League may well need a Shelbourne win on aggregate to forestall that awful scenario. The buck, then, stops with Shelbourne. They know it. Another honourable defeat won't do, even though the opposition are currently fifth in a more professional league which is also 15 games (half-way) into its league campaign.

The same imbalance afflicted Bohemians and St Patrick's against Belarussian and Slovakian opposition. Nevertheless, that is something that must be overcome. Alas, the evidence of the last three weeks - and before constitutes a strong argument against the introduction of summer football.

Shelbourne's 2-1 defeat to Tranmere was the 30th friendly hosted by a National League club in the last week. Because of the Olympics (and Euro '96 was almost as big a distraction) they were largely ignored by media and public alike.

With the World Cup coming every intervening two years the problem would become biennial. Add in the All-Ireland championships, summer holidays and everything else, and the over-riding distractions could well be annual.

We're a nation of traditionalists and it's noticeable that the supporters of summer football invariably come from the less-supported clubs. Those that are actively increasing their support base tend not to be clamouring for what would be the most momentous change of all to domestic football.

However, in the absence of summer football, something still needs to be done to assist Irish clubs in every earlier European competition. An earlier start and mid-winter break remains a viable option. Though the club representatives and the administrators haven't done enough despite annual end-of-season calls to work together, this summer was at least a start.

As Damien Richardson has acknowledged, the FAI National League's assistance toward Shelbourne's working weekend in Mitchelstown last month was of significant help. Yet the intrusion of the National League v Manchester United match disrupted their preparations for Europe.

Either Shelbourne should have played United en bloc, or the four participating Shelbourne players should have been withdrawn so Richardson could have utilised his intended line-up for the Brann tie against St Johnstone the previous day.

Because of the presence of the Brann manager at last Wednesday's impressive 2-0 win over Huddersfield, Richardson could only adopt his new three-man central defence system (varying from 5-4-1 to 3-4-3) for the second time against John Aldridge's Tranmere yesterday, and even then only in the first half.

Far from discouraged, Richardson afterwards turned his thoughts to Brann, whom he had seen on Sunday. "For the first-half they (Brann) were very good before they conceded a goal in a local derby and the game slipped away.

"Norwegian football is very good at the moment, but so is football throughout Europe and I believe firmly that our football is the best it's been in some time.

"This game is a test for our league as much as Shelbourne and will show us how much we've grown in the last year. I can't wait for it to start.

After a barren decade, three aggregate wins by National League clubs in the previous three years has begun to set the record straight. "I want us to shake off that inferiority complex which for too long retarded us.